The world’s oldest suspended monorail is more than 120 years old: where it is located and how it works

There Wuppertal suspended monorail (in German Wuppertal Schwebebahn) holds the record for being the first in the world of this typein which the cars travel suspended under the track instead of above. Inaugurated in 1901, is located in Wuppertal, Germany, and is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the area: think that every day these suspended carriages are able to transport up to 80 thousand people!

The characteristics of the suspended monorail

Overall the monorail is approximately 13.3km and to go from Vohwinkel to Oberbarmen – that is, from one terminus to the other – it takes approx 30 minutes. An interesting aspect is that of the 20 stops, only 4 are suspended above the ground: the remaining 16 are located on the Wupper Riverat a height included between 8 and 12 meters.

Obviously over time this structure has evolved: first they were rebuild all stations and only three of them (Werther Bridge, Völklinger Strasse and District Court) have been faithfully recreated according to the original design. The carriages have also been changed several times and at the moment only the most modern ones are in operation 15^to generation – with the exception of the imperial carriage, built in the early twentieth century and still rentable today for various types of events, such as weddings and receptions.

From a technical point of view i modern wagons they are powered by electric motors which recover energy through regenerative braking. Furthermore, each cabin can reach i 65 km/heven if the limit imposed on the route is 60 km/h. Each carriage can accommodate 45 seated passengers And 96 standing.

The Wuppertal monorail accidents

Although nowadays the carriages are equipped with all the more modern security systemsover the decades this suspended train has been the protagonist of various accidents – most of which, fortunately, were non-lethal.
In the 1917 for example two wagons yes they crashed; In the 1968 a truck it hit one of the pillars which supported the monorail, causing its closure for more than two months; In the 1999 an error during the renovation work caused the train derailmentcausing 3 victims and 47 injured.

Of all the incidents, however, the most iconic one occurred on July 21, 1950when a local circus decided to let a baby elephant by name Dives to advertise their shows. Unfortunately the animal – perhaps scared – broke a window of the carriagethrowing himself into the river. Fortunately he emerged almost unscathed and has since the little elephant it is one of the symbols of the city and present on most local souvenirs.